Pietro Ghedin is determined to gain a positive result on his final home appearance as national coach when he leads Malta against Lithuania in a World Cup qualifier at the National Stadium tonight (kick-off: 8.45pm).

The Maltese are still without a point after eight successive defeats in Group F and a home match against the second-bottom Lithuanians would, on paper, represent Malta’s best opportunity to break their duck in the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.

However, Ghedin’s preparations for the match have been severely jolted by the withdrawal of three key players in the squad, namely, midfielder Bjorn Kristensen and forwards Michael Mifsud and Jean Paul Farrugia.

Added to that, midfielder Ryan Fenech is ruled out as he must serve a one-match ban.

“This is another very important game for us to try and leave a good impression,” Ghedin told a news conference yesterday.

“After eight defeats we are keen to get at least a point from the match but it will not be easy as we have lost three important players through injury and that has disrupted our plans for the match.

“I could have turned to Jurgen Degabriele, of Hibernians, but he is part of the U-21 squad who have two key matches coming up and I don’t want to create problems for Silvio Vella.

“I will have a good look at the players in training today and tomorrow to try and find some solutions as we are playing a very good team.

“Lithuania have improved a lot during the last few months and they have many players in their squad who ply their trade with top European teams so it will not be an easy match but we will do our best and try to win.”

In the last few months, the Malta coach came in for criticism for his cautious approach in international matches but the Italian rejected talk that his priority was to defend.

“It’s not true that my focus is just to defend,” Ghedin said.

“My priority is always to pick up the right players that will provide a good balance to the team.

“Today, international football has changed a lot with many national teams, like England, who have changed their methods and are adopting our same tactical formation of 3-5-2 to ensure they are well balanced.

“It’s impossible to win matches if you don’t have good tactical discipline. I would love to push more players forward but when you are playing against strong sides like England and Scotland it’s very difficult because they are superior to us and we always do our best.

“Against Lithuania we are without two very important forwards and that has left us in a difficult situation but we will try and give our 100 per cent to try and get the best possible result.”

Ghedin yesterday handed a call to Ħamrun Spartans trio Daniel Zerafa, Siraj Arab and Lydon Micallef and the Italian said that he hopes that he will have the opportunity to give a taste of international football to these young players.

“Daniel, Lydon and Siraj are three very young players who I decided to bring them in the group so they can understand what it means international football,” he said.

“Playing international football is not easy but they have a lot of talent and I hope to be able to give them some minutes so they can understand more what is needed to be able to play at this level.”